


Courting Games

by Angelchexmex



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cute, Daggers, Gifts, M/M, Sassy Jarvis, Sleepy Tony, courting, fluff and sad, frostirongiftexchange 2017, kind of melancholy, sweet but aloof Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 19:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13324779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelchexmex/pseuds/Angelchexmex
Summary: Tony has been courting Loki for ages, but Loki doesn't want it to end. He wants to keep Tony's attention like this for as long as he can and, for all that it hurts, Tony is willing to go along with it. Until Loki trusts him enough to say yes, Tony's willing to play this courting game.





	Courting Games

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted by me on Tumblr for the 2017 frostiron gift exchange and I figured I'd post it here too. I was thinking about adding another part to it, but I'm not sure if I have time. Would anyone be interested?
> 
> Please let me know what you think!

Tony threw another blade on the growing pile next to his work bench, annoyed at yet another failure. Sure it was pretty and ornate and sturdy and perfectly balanced, but it wasn’t fully resistant against magic or glamorous enough or light enough or as well balanced as Tony wanted. All he wanted was a bit of perfection, was that really too much to ask?

Snorting, Tony stretched out his back, sore from being bent over and working on the useless blades for so long, and let himself acknowledge the fact that the reason the blades weren’t right was because he wasn’t good enough. In his defense, he had always been geared to larger, more destructive, technological weapons not old fashioned bladesmithing work. On the other hand, he was supposed to be a world renowned genius and should be capable of making a few measly blades.

“Useless,” Tony huffed, his voice far more defeated than he had meant it to be. “Don’t know why I’m trying anyway.”

“Sir?” JARVIS questioned, ever so slightly hesitant. “Mr. Odinson and Mr. Silvertongue are set to arrive in six hours.”

Tony slammed his head onto his work table, barely taking the time to make sure he wouldn’t hit anything dangerous as he did. “Of course they are,” he mumbled into the table, eyes fighting to close as he reached the closest to laying down that he had been in days, “why are you telling me this, Jay? Do you like seeing me suffer? Do you enjoy my pain?”

“Not at all Sir,” JARVIS stated, voice affronted even though there had been many times that Tony could bring up to refute such a statement, “however, you instructed me to keep you updated on their arrival.”

Tony just let out a long groan, tilting his head so he could look morosely at the pile of thirty or so knives he’d discarded. All of them had been wrong in some way. A little less than half of them were resistant to magic, less than that fully magic proof, some simply weren’t good knives in general, and many simply weren’t elegant enough. 

“Sir,” JARVIS spoke up again and Tony debated muting him, “have you thought about using part of an arc reactor to anchor the magic void set on the blades?”

This was why Tony tried to reign in his impulses to mute JARVIS, sometimes his oldest lab buddy had amazing ideas. “Using the same element I have in my arc reactor,” Tony murmured allowed. It could work, after all the arc reactor had been the reason he’d been able to resist Loki’s mind control during the invasion.

“That’s brilliant Jay! You make Daddy so proud,” Tony whipped a fake tear from his eye.

“I am jumping in joy, Sir,” JARVIS replied deadpan.

Tony snorted, too happy at this new idea to bother threatening to sell JARVIS for his snark or anything of the like. This was an absolutely brilliant idea, and it meant he could give Loki a part of himself as well.

Something about that idea made Tony’s heart stutter and his stomach flutter. He’d created that element to save his life, and now he might be able to use it to create weapons that could save Loki’s life.

Tony really got into it then, ideas rushing through his head as he gathered up all of the material he would need. Making the arc reactor element and the metal of the actual bled meld together correctly would be difficult, but Tony was capable of anything and everything when he put his mind to it. 

It felt better this time too, less like he was forcing himself to make the blades and more like he was simply giving life to something that already existed. It was the beauty of creation and the high of building that he sometimes got in particularly inspired moments and the end product clearly showed that.

“What do you think Jay?” Tony asked sometime later when he was finally done and so exhausted that his hands were trembling and darkness creeping into his vision any time he moved too quickly. 

“Expertly crafted Sir, Mr. Silvertongue is assured to love them, however, might I sugges-”, JARVIS began only for his creator to interrupt him.

“No you may not Jay. These are perfect. I have to give them to Loki Doki right now,” determined, and far too sleep deprived for proper thought, Tony picked up the twin daggers he’d finally finished and made his way to the elevator.

Getting upstairs wasn’t exactly hard, mainly because JARVIS already knew where Tony was going and took pity on the exhausted genius by taking him directly to the main Avengers floor without making Tony ask. Given enough time, Tony would have been able to figure out where he was going other than just ‘too Loki’ but the fact that he would have had to think about it at all was a sure sign that he should currently be asleep. 

Instead, JARVIS announced his creator’s presence to the Avengers who had gathered to welcome Thor and Loki back. Mostly Thor in all honesty. After Loki had been let out on probation, which was the closest that Thor was able to explain for what exactly was going on, he’d been brought to live at Avengers tower, but even three years later not everyone felt fully comfortable with him around. Clint still watched him suspiciously and Steve couldn’t seem to decide how to treat him at all given that while Loki had been a villain at one point he’d served his time. 

Tony completely ignored the subtle air of ‘not quite comfortable’ and the careful balance that the Avengers were trying to keep as they greeted the two Asgardians. 

“Reindeer Games!” Tony cheered as he fell through the open elevator doors and caught himself on the wall.

“Is he drunk?” Steve asked, half worried and half shocked. Tony had been completely sober for nearly three years now and he hadn’t even had a danger night in nearly six months.

“Sir has not slept in 92 hours,” JARVIS piped up, diffusing the situation before it even became a situation.

“Anthony,” Loki sighed, moving closer since he was obviously the target of the genius’ focus.

“I made you a present, Mr. Green and Lean,” Tony thrust his hands out proudly and Loki only managed not to be stabbed through years of honing his reflexes.

“Surprise stabbing,” Loki stated drily, “my favorite gift of all.”

“No, no, no,” Tony slurred out. “You’re the stabby one. You can stab me any day.” Tony attempted to waggle his eyebrows suggestively, but mostly he just managed a sweet dopey smile and infatuated gaze.

“My gratitude then, Anthony,” Loki carefully took the blades from Tony’s hands. “How about we go to bed now?” 

Tony’s eyes went wide. “That would be awesome,” he breathed out excitedly grabbing Loki’s hand, turning to drag him off, and promptly toppling over.

Loki caught Tony carefully, retracting his magic now that he’d knocked Tony out. “I shall return him to his chambers,” he announced to the room, pointedly ignoring the knowing looks sent his way.

The daggers he had slipped into his armor felt warm against his side even though he knew he couldn’t actually feel them. He would practice with them later, but he already knew they would be some of the best weapons he ever used. All of the things Anthony had given him were the best. From the armor to the phone to the food, Tony spared no expense.

Placing Tony gently on his bed, Loki pressed a gentle kiss to Tony’s brow, eyes soft and heart even softer. He’d known he was in love with Tony months ago when the silly little mortal had first begun his courting game, but after receiving so much attention and such wonderful gifts, Loki found that he couldn’t give it up. He didn’t want their courtship to end and all of the attention to stop.

“Sleep,” he whispered soothing, pleased when the sound of his voice caused the last of the tension in Tony to melt away. “We shall dine together in the morning as thanks for your wonderful gift,” Loki promised, running his hand gently through Tony’s hair on last time before he stood up.

Hopefully, Tony would sleep through the night and give Loki time to prepare a proper meal for the both of them. He’d have to set it up in a way that seemed accidental and unplanned, but that was half the fun in this game of theirs. The hidden meanings and the love in seemingly innocuous gestures. 

Tony opened his eyes slightly, turning his head just enough to catch a glimpse of Loki’s smiling face. These were the moments in which Tony knew he wasn’t wasting his time with all the work he spent on wooing Loki. All of the gifts and gestures and flirting, he only kept them up because of this: because Loki always gave him these little rewards which he tried to disguise. As long as Loki was still interested, Tony would continue to pursue him. 

He didn’t know why Loki didn’t trust him, didn’t know why they had to keep up this charade, and more often than not it caused an ache to throb steadily in Tony’s chest and his eyes to burn with tears. Tony wanted to be able to hold Loki in his arms all the time and be able to sleep in the same bed as him and tell Loki he loved him all the time, but that just wasn’t possible. 

Tony turned from the sight of his almost-love in the doorway of his room and let his eyes close. Trying to sleep for real now. It was bittersweet for now, spending time with Loki like that, but Tony could be patient. He would wait until Loki was ready for them to take the next step in their relationship, and, for now, he’d savor the ache in his heart, knowing it only meant that the future for them would be even sweeter. 

One day they would be together, and until then, Tony would survive on the smiles he could draw out of Loki. Because as long as Loki was happy, then Tony could be too.


End file.
